Beware the Traveler
by therealavery
Summary: Alice Smith, a girl with a taste for adventure, wants only to leave her life behind and get out. But why does she keep drawing these mysterious symbols? And who is contacting her from the old bracelet she wears? The teacher claiming to be a man called the Doctor might have the answers she needs, but there are dangers to trusting strange men with a time machine.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello,**

 **Some of you may recognize this story as one that was published by a user named NightBird. I am NightBird, just under a different user name and such. I realize the first version of this story was never finished, which I plan to rectify. I will be uploading chapters about every week or so, and this time it will have an actual ending.**

 **My apologies for not finishing off the story the first time around, and for the two year hiatus. And thank you to the users who messaged me and asked me to continue writing after such a long time. I really enjoyed the concept of this story and hope to upload others like it in the future.**

 **Hopefully this will be the only Author's Note I put on any of my stories.**

 **Cheers.**

* * *

Alice Smith wanted nothing more than to get out. It really didn't matter what it was, she just wanted out of it. Maybe that's why she decided to skip school for three and a half weeks.

Her trick of hiding in the back of the school bus and then escaping out of the emergency exit had worked quite well. The wheezy old bus driver never bothered to check to see if all the students had gotten off before he pulled the bus into the little alleyway at exactly 8:03 every morning. It would remain in that alleyway until 2:46 sharp, when it would drift up to the front of the building to wait for the students to waddle on again. She just had to be hiding in the very back row again by 2:34, and she would beat the bus driver.

After the bus driver got off his bus and toddled into town at 8:07, Alice would slip out the back emergency door–which was never locked and never sent up an alarm–and head into town to see what adventures she could have that day. She'd already seen all the movies in the cinema, rode all the trains into New York, watched an open heart surgery, performed onstage in a children's play, and made chocolate candies at a sweet shop. It was amazing what the word "intern" and a quickly flashed ID could do for a person. Each day was something different, something new and exciting–but it wasn't enough.

Alice knew that the dean would eventually catch on to what she was doing. But it still came as a surprise when she hopped out of the bus on her seventeenth day of no school and saw him and her parents waiting for her around the corner at 8:08.

"You didn't think you could get away with this forever, could you, Ms. Smith?" the dean asked, a triumphant glare on his face.

Alice looked at her mom and dad. Mother was purple with anger, the hairs on her chin quivering. Dad, however, just looked reproachfully at his shoes, as if he somehow blamed himself for her erroneous behavior. Her heart twinged ever so slightly.

Turning back to the dean, she smiled and said, "Well, it was about time you caught on. I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me."

The dean looked taken aback. He composed himself, and after a minute, spoke again: "As this is a personal high for you and your silly little exploits, I'm sure we're on grounds for expulsion." He pulled a packet of papers out of the binder he was carrying. "Let's see–participating in violence on school grounds three times–"

"I couldn't get to my locker because there were so many people around it, so I had to squeeze in!" Alice protested.

"–failure to complete homework on time–"

"It was one day late. So sue me."

"–participating in the dealing of drugs–"

"Cinnamon is not a drug. And giving a cinnamon roll to your classmate isn't the same thing as giving her, oh, aspirin or something."

"–feigning sickness five times, refusing to attend school assemblies twice, failure to dress according to the school dress code on twenty-seven instances, and now failure to arrive at school without an excuse sixteen times."

"Ok, those were intentional. I'll give you that."

The dean ignored her. "Which now totals your demerit points to two hundred and five. Exactly five points over the two hundred point suspension rule." The dean looked smug. Alice wanted to smack the silly little grin his pudgy face was twisted in to.

She had an idea to get under his skin. "Hold on then," she said, leaning back and putting one finger to her chin. "By your calculations, that would mean that I get one point for late homework, two points for pretending to be sick, three points for violence, three points for drugs, four points for not dressing according to the dress code and not coming to school, and five points for not coming to assemblies. Am I correct?"

"That is correct." The dean looked at her warily. "How did you know that?"

"It's simple math, really. Anyways, what makes those assemblies so important?" She leaned in close and said softly, "Why do they get more points than something more destructive? Something like the drugs or the violence?"

The dean's face turned a violent shade of red. He pointed one of his sausage-like fingers at her. "Stay out of my notebook. Don't question the demerit point system. And if you would participate in these assemblies, you would know, Miss Smith. After all, according to these records, you have not been attending."

Alice laughed a short, barking laugh. "Well congratulations, Dr. Watson! I do believe you have solved the case, my old boy!" She spun backwards and tipped an invisible hat to the dean. "Please, call me Holmes, Inspector."

The dean's face was now purple. "I've had enough of your antics for one day," he spat in her face. He turned to her mother. She'd forgotten she was there. "Take your sorry excuse of a daughter to the nurse's office and get her dressed for school. I don't want to see her toe out of that building until three, do you hear me?" Mother nodded curtly as the dean stomped back to the school.

"Hold on, then," Alice said. "I thought I was being suspended?" The dean turned, but before he could reply, Alice started talking again. "Oh, but of course not, because that's what I would want. A whole year of no school. A whole year to cause trouble. A whole year to get up under that wig of yours, eh?" She smiled, but inside, her stomach was a boiling pit of rage. "Don't want me running around causing any more trouble, huh? And how do you expect to keep me inside the school? You don't scare me, and neither do your silly little teachers, handing out their silly little demerits!" Her smile had stretched itself out into a sneer.

The dean walked back slowly. He looked like a ticking bomb, ready to explode at any moment. But he smiled calmly. "Congratulations, Dr. Watson. I do believe you have solved the case." Without peeling his gaze off Alice, he said, "Mrs. Smith, get a tracker from one of my receptionists. I'll make sure I keep this one right where I want her." He then turned and stalked back to the entrance of the school.

Alice let out a sigh of relief. Mother grabbed her by the arm and shoved her along after the retreating hump of the dean. Dad followed like a scolded puppy.

"I do hope you're pleased with yourself," Mother hissed in her ear. The corner of Alice's mouth went up slightly. She was beyond angry, but where was the fun in making the dean think that he had won?

As soon as they stepped inside the school building, Alice searched for a clock. 8:13. The run-in with the dean had only lasted five minutes.

Mother marched Alice right up to the receptionist's desk, where she was handed a thick black bracelet. The receptionist didn't even look up from her computer screen. Odd. How did she know what Mother had come for?

When they reached the nurse's office, Mother glared over her shoulder at Dad. He stopped right where he was and gazed mournfully on at Alice. She raised her hand in half a wave and gave him half a smile, hoping it would translate as half an apology. Poor man. He really needed to grow a backbone.

When Mother shut the door behind her, she immediately pulled a white button-down blouse, a gray skirt, white stockings, black patent leather shoes, and a navy blue tie out of her handbag. "Arms," she barked at Alice.

Alice lifted her arms over her head as Mother began to yank the shirt Alice was wearing off her skinny frame. "I don't know why you insist on being so difficult." Here it was. One of Mother's infamous lectures. The people in town used to say that Mother could convince the Devil to become a regular church-goer before the mention of anything secular was banned. So was church.

"This is one of the best schools in the state," Mother continued. "Your father and I value your education. We have worked a long ways to get you here. It involved our blood, our sweat, and our tears to get you into this school. And then you go and throw it all away, and for what? One of your silly little adventures! Imagine what people would say when they heard that you got thrown out of a prestigious school! But thank the President that you didn't. Had it not been for the dean's grace and good favor, you would have to live in the streets, all on your own, without your father and I to help you. Do you know what that life is like?"

It was 8:14 when Mother had started her lecture. It went on until Alice felt her voluminous blonde curls being yanked backwards into a ponytail at 8:19. Mother was crying by now.

"And I don't know what I would do without retirement money. The government will give some, but how will I buy a new house? Go vacationing? Hire servants? What then?" Mother looked at Alice forlornly, her eyes pleading for Alice to stay in line, stay in school, and stay on the path the government had given her to lead a good life. All for some lavish lifestyle that didn't include Dad. But it was hard to argue with Mother, so Alice just smiled.

"I'm truly awfully sorry." Lies. "I wasn't thinking about you. I just wanted to do something new. So I had an adventure. And you know what? It was dangerous and not fun at all." Lies. "I mean, how could I pass up an opportunity to get a good education and take care of my dear mother? I can't think of anything more fun than that." Lies. But by now tears were streaming from Alice's eyes, so the lies almost sounded like half-truths.

It was enough to convince Mother. She opened her arms wide, and Alice stepped into them for a bone-crushing hug. Just before her ribcage felt like it would collapse, Mother took her shoulders and held her at arm's length. "There's my sweet girl," she said, patting Alice's cheek. Alice smiled, hiding her disgust. "There's the daughter that's going to take care of me. I love you, sweetheart." She reached down and fastened the thick silver bracelet around Alice's ankle. Looks like she wasn't going anywhere for a while. Mother straightened and glared at Alice.

"Bracelet comes off," she said, pointing at Alice's right wrist. A navy blue band, about one inch in width, was snuggled on tightly.

Alice sighed. "It doesn't come off. I already tried that." She'd had the bracelet for as long as she could remember, even back when she was a toddler. It had always fit like a second skin, but it seemed to grow with her. If she got bigger, so did the bracelet. She had never let Mother touch it, let alone take it off. It felt like being asked to cut off her finger if she was asked to take it off.

"We'll cut it off tonight." Mother straightened and looked Alice directly in the eyes. "Now I want no toes over the line, do you hear me, girl?" Alice nodded. "Good girl. I'll see if I can get a pizza tonight for you." The wrinkles around Mother's eyes deepened as she smiled cruelly. "Now get to class."

Alice saw Dad sulking in a corner as she left the nurse's office. She raised her right hand in farewell, but a flash of white caught her attention. It was her bracelet. Instead of being a solid blue band, it now had curvy script on it.

 _He's here._


	2. Chapter 2

Alice ran down the hall to her English class at 8:25, a faded yellow sticky note with a scrawled note in the receptionist's handwriting on it. She was terrified of her English teacher, Ms. Bachman. Ms. Bachman had an ability to glare students down that could rival Mother. She was a tight, stingy elderly woman with bad breath and nearly no hair at all. She always smelled of cat urine and watery tea. And because of the Teacher's Union and that damned government, she was still a teacher, even though she could barely make out whatever a student wrote. She only ever assigned two grades: an A- and an F. The A- went on the papers of the students whom she liked, and the F went on those she didn't like. Alice always scored an F.

She reached the door to her English class, Room 173, at 8:26. She prepared to hear the sharp, raspy voice of Ms. Bachman. But as she composed herself and slowed her breathing down to make it seem like she wasn't running, a very different floated from behind the door of the English classroom. The voice was male. It sounded distant, but near; it was power and command and peace and gentleness all at the same time. She could make out a few words, and the voice sounded like it had an accent, but she couldn't put her finger on where it was from. It sounded very familiar, though.

As she found out when she opened the door, the voice did belong to a man. A man who was very tall, very skinny, and had very brown hair that seemed to have a personality of its own. He was dressed in a suit of deep blue, and he was perched on the desk, reading from a book of Shakespeare. No, it was definitely not Ms. Bachman.

"Oh, hello then!" the strange man chirped brightly, smiling at Alice. "I see we have a visitor. And who might you be?"

"Um." The man's enthusiasm caught her off guard. None of the other teachers here acted this happy to see a student. Especially a late one. "I'm Alice Smith. I think I'm in the wrong classroom."

The class tittered at her statement. They stopped laughing when she glared at them.

The man pulled up a sheet from the massive pile of papers on the desk. "Uh-huh, let's see...Smith, Alice. Yep, you're in the right class. Is this your fist day here? It's my first day here. We'll be new together." He stood up and crossed over to her, holding out his hand. "I'm your new teacher, Doctor John Smith. Hey, look at that, we have the same last name."

She shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Now then, you can sit, oh, how about over in that empty desk by mine?" He pointed at a lone seat in the front row in the very corner. At least there weren't many people around her. She hated the people in her English class. She handed him the sticky note and crossed the room to her intended seat. Dr. Smith pulled a pair of rectangular glasses out from inside his suit jacket, put them on, glanced at the note, and then threw the note onto his desk. She wondered how he kept things organized.

"Right then, back to the Bard," he said, returning to his perch on the desk. Alice glanced at the clock. 8:28.

He finished the section he was reading–it sounded like the last bit of a poem–and he then addressed the class. "Who can tell me what are the components of a sonnet?"

Alice knew, but she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself. She looked behind her. Five students in the middle were staring forward, their faces completely blank. Two girls whispered to each other behind their hands, occasionally giggling and batting their eyelashes at Dr. Smith. One boy had his head slumped forward onto the desk, a wet puddle collecting beneath his face. Ten people were on their phones, either messaging other students or surfing the Internet. One girl was doodling in her notebook. The other six were either looking at the floor, at the ceiling, or at nothing at all.

"No one knows? Aw, come on, this is Shakespeare we're talking about! The Bard himself! Surely you have to have at least _read_ something of his!" Dr. Smith looked expectantly around the room.

Someone coughed. Alice raised her hand timidly.

"Yes, Miss Smith?"

"A sonnet is a fourteen line poem split into four stanzas," she said, leaning forward as she spoke. "The first three stanzas have four lines each and follow the rhyme scheme ABAB. The last two lines form a rhyming couplet as the fourth stanza. Traditionally, each line contains ten syllables, and the syllables are arranged in iambic pentameter."

Dr. Smith was busy scribbling everything she said on to the board. "And can you tell me where the sonnet originates, Miss Smith?"

"Italy, I think."

"Excellent job!" he cried, whirling to face her. He pointed at the rest of the class. "You all should take lessons from her. She actually knows what she's learning."

Alice turned to look at the class. Most of the students weren't paying attention, except for the two girls who had been whispering to each other. One had a dark auburn hair, the other looked like she was of Orient descent. Both were glaring daggers at her. The one of Orient descent pointed at the door and mouthed the words, _After class_.

Alice turned to look at Dr. Smith, who was now passing out a piece of paper that looked like their homework assignment. She got hers at 8:30.

"Your job is to write a sonnet for class on Monday," he said as he wove slowly between the desks. "It can be about anything you want, as long as it's interesting. You don't have to write in iambic pentameter–I expect most of you don't even know what that is–but the rhyme scheme, line count, and syllable count all have to be the same." The class gave off a collective groan. "Aw, come on, it's not that hard. I've listed some ideas on your paper. You have the rest of the class time to work." More groaning ensued.

Alice snuck a look at Dr. Smith at his desk. He wasn't like any of the other teachers at this school. He was clever, off-the-wall, and easy to talk to. Moreover, he seemed to enjoy his job. He didn't give a dry lecture on an old, forgotten concept; she felt that she was learning something from him. This was clearly a teacher to impress. So she pulled the sheet of paper in front of her and tried to work.

The problem was, she couldn't think of a topic. So she looked at the list of suggestions: a memory of your childhood, someone whom you are fond of, a time with a family member, your observations on nature. She couldn't remember most of her childhood, she'd never actually felt attracted to anyone, the only family she had were Mother and Dad, and why nature? She looked at the clock. 8:32. This was going to be a long class period.

She finally gave up and began doodling in the corner of her paper. She let her mind wander as the lines flew out from the tip of her pencil like a spider forming a web. She didn't think as she sketched shapes and figures and lines and dots in the margin of her assignment.

A cough woke her from her reverie. Dr. Smith was frowning at her. No–he was frowning at her paper. She looked down at her paper to see what she had drawn. A configuration of circles, all touching each other. Some were connected by lines, some had other shapes inside, some had bites out of them like little crescent moons. The circles were each different, each forming a piece of something greater. She didn't know what that something was, but it felt important. But it definitely wasn't something meant for an English classroom.

Face burning, Alice hid her paper with her forearm. So much for trying to impress the new teacher. Because of the stupid sketch in the corner of her paper, she was fairly certain that Dr. Smith had just added himself to the list of teachers who found her a vile, insolent, and immature child.

She looked at the clock. 8:44. One minute until the next period. She stared as the second hand slowly made its journey to the top of the white hill. Six, five, four, three, two, one...

A loud bell sounded from the intercom on the wall and echoed through the room, bouncing from wall to wall. The students all put away their assignments, picked up their books, and hurried to the door. Alice was the first one out.

"Okay, make sure you lot do your assignments tonight!" Dr. Smith yelled at the retreating students. "I expect your sonnet imitations by Monday at the latest! That's three days for you to do it!"

Alice couldn't make out what he said after that. She was running down the hall, well on her way to Physics. She dashed into Room 116 and flew into a seat in the last of the lab tables. Breathing a sigh, she reached for her Physics binder when a cold thought dripped its way into her brain. She had left her sonnet assignment back in Room 173. That meant she would have to face Dr. Smith again at lunch and ask for it back.

She sighed dramatically as she slumped back in her chair. This was not shaping out to be a glorious day.


	3. Chapter 3

At 11:16, Alice stood in front of Room 173, waiting for the few straggling students to exit the classroom and wander their way down to the cafeteria for lunch. She paused before entering the classroom, silently practicing in her head how to quickly get her assignment back with minimal questioning and reprimands. Taking a deep breath in, she entered the classroom.

Dr. Smith was perched on the edge of his desk again, reading from the same Shakespeare book. He looked up at her when she entered and smiled.

"Ah, it's the new girl." He crossed over to her, taking off his rectangular glasses. "What can I do for you?"

Alice had expected him to lecture her on the importance of class time and how it was extremely careless of her to leave her assignment behind. That's what the other teachers would have done. But then again, Dr. Smith was no ordinary teacher.

"Sorry, I just came for my assignment. I think I left it in here," she explained slowly.

He looked confused for a brief moment, then said, "A-a-ah, yes, I did find that on your desk." He reached into the massive mountain of papers on his desk and pulled out one sheet of paper. He studied it for a moment and frowned. "Interesting drawings you got there." He looked up at her. "Do you know what they are?"

She snorted. "No, they're just scribbles. I draw them all the time."

Dr. Smith leaned back against his desk. "Show me."

Alice hesitated. No one had ever questioned her doodles before, and no one had certainly asked to see them. He must have asked to see them for a good reason. So she flipped to a page in one of her note books and handed it to him.

He put his glasses on again as he flipped through the pages. "Interesting," he mused. "They're never the same; each one says something different. Which means you're not copying them, so–oh..." He stopped flipping through as he reached the last page she had written on. "You're not just writing these, are you? You're sending a message."

Alice could not follow what he was saying. "Sorry, writing what?"

Dr. Smith glanced at her before he turned the notebook to her. Filling the page were more of the odd circles, each with a different pattern of lines, divots, and other circles inside them. The circles were all arranged inside a bigger circle, looking as if it were some sort of message. _Sentence_ , Alice thought, but then shook her head. They were just doodles. They didn't mean anything.

"I didn't write anything," Alice said, pointing at the page. "And I certainly don't remember any kind of message." She looked at Dr. Smith. "What are you talking about?"

He looked at her almost sadly. "You really don't know what this is, do you?" He sucked in a breath and took out what looked like a pen from his inside pocket. "I think this was the signal I picked up." He pointed the pen-thing at the page, and a blue light came from its end. A buzzing noise filled the air. "Ah, yes, this is it."

"What's that thing? Was it the one making that noise?" Alice asked.

He ignored her. "But here it warns of something to come. And it wants me to find the Traveller." He put the notebook down and looked at the ceiling as if the cheap wood tiles held the answer. "Traveler. Traveler traveler traveler. Who is the traveler?"

"Dr. Smith," Alice replied, annoyance dripping on the edges of her voice.

He looked at her. "Call me Doctor."

"Fine. Doctor. Are you going to answer my questions?"

"Oh. Right." He took off his glasses as he gave her a focused look. "These drawings in your notebook are a kind of homing signal. They're used for tracking down lost things and people. This particular signal warns of something coming and asks for something to be rescued, or rather, some _one_ known as the Traveler."

"Okay," said Alice slowly. "I think I follow. But who is the Traveler? And how can just a pencil and a piece of cheap paper do all that?"

"It's not so much the pencil and paper as it is the words," said Dr. Smith. "It's the words that have the power of calling to all reaches of the universe. And I have no idea who the Traveler is."

"Okay." He sounded crazy, but part of this messed-up logic was starting to make sense. It was scaring her. "I think I had better go to lunch now. Nice chatting with you." As she turned around, a flash of white on her bracelet caught her attention.

 _Don't. Stay there._

She stopped and stared down at her wrist. How was it doing that?

Dr. Smith came up behind her and gently took hold of her wrist. He looked at the bracelet, looking perplexed. "It must have some psychic abilities of its own."

"Meaning?" she asked, fearful of a response.

"Meaning that someone wants to communicate with you. So what are you doing with a bracelet like this and a few pages of Circular Gallifreyan?"

Nothing this exciting or frightening had ever happened. Well, that she could remember. "Wh-what should I do?" Fear creeped into her voice.

Dr. Smith gently lowered her wrist and looked into her eyes. "I think you should stay here with me for a while."


	4. Chapter 4

Alice forgot that she wasn't keeping up on the time. She glanced at the clock from where she was sitting. 11:34. She sighed and looked back to what Dr. Smith was doing.

He was sitting in the chair at his desk, waving the pen-thing over and around her bracelet. He looked so focused on what he was doing that she was almost afraid to ask him a question and break his concentration. Two minutes later, she finally worked up enough nerve to clear her throat.

"So, that thing," she said haltingly. "What exactly–I mean, what does it do?"

He looked up at her. "It's a sonic screwdriver. Does almost anything I want it to."

She laughed once. "Sonic screwdriver, huh? Funny name."

He looked back down at her wrist and smiled. "It's a funny tool."

"Fair enough." The room lapsed back into stillness, with only the buzzing of the sonic screwdriver filling the silence. "So, those drawings of mine. You said they were writing. But they don't look like any sort of writing I've seen. I mean, everything else is made up of characters in a line or piled on top of each other. This is just...doodling."

"If you want to think of it in terms of writing, I guess you could say that it's like the symbols piled on top of each other." He turned her wrist over and frowned. "But there's more taking away than there is adding...it's an odd process, and you seem to know it well." This came with a pointed glance from him.

Alice shook her head. "Honestly, I don't know where that all came from. I just thought I was doing some mindless sketching."

Dr. Smith shrugged and looked back down at her bracelet. "Almost...got...there!" He triumphantly pocketed the sonic screwdriver and lifted her wrist higher. A tiny opening had appeared in the bracelet, so small it looked as if a hair could barely pass through. "You should be able to take it off now," Dr. Smith said. He hesitated, looking at Alice, and motioned toward the bracelet. "May I?"

She nodded. No sense in keeping it now that it could come off.

He reached down and gently tugged the gap a little wider and then slid the bracelet over her hand and off her arm. She pulled her arm back and rubbed her wrist with her hand. It felt strange having the bracelet off, almost as if a piece of her was missing.

Dr. Smith held the bracelet up and studied the inside with rapture. "This is beautiful work...clearly not from this century...or this planet, for that matter." He turned it over in his hands. "Hold on," he said, frowning. "There's a switch on the inside. Wonder what happens if I–oh."

Alice leaned forward to see. A little sliding switch, no bigger than an ink dot, sat right next to the crack. It was slid partway to the right, revealing a little compartment that had opened for Dr. Smith. She couldn't see what was inside, but whatever it was seemed to fascinate Dr. Smith.

"What's in there?" Alice asked, trying to crane her neck to see without leaning on Dr. Smith.

"You know," he said, almost to himself, "I don't know. There's a little hole in here." Dr. Smith ran his index finger around the compartment. "I bet something comes–ow!" He yanked his hand back and dropped the bracelet in surprise. Alice swooped to pick it up off the floor and stared. The little compartment inside the bracelet was lined with a gold-colored metal, and a hole about the size of a pebble was in the exact middle of the compartment. Now protruding from the hole was a short needle, which was covered in red blood. Little wires embedded in the metal ran from the edge of the hole to the inside of the bracelet, beyond where the compartment ended. Little green lights were moving along the wires, starting from the edge of the hole and going to other places in the bracelet. Intrigued, Alice turned the bracelet over and found a new message on the outside of the bracelet.

 _You'll find me inside._

"Doctor, what did it do to you?" She didn't look up from the message.

"It took a DNA sample from me." She turned her head to look at his finger, which he was now examining. There was a small puncture wound in the pad on his finger. It would heal shortly. "Wonder why it needed a sample."

"Would this have anything to do with it?" Alice held the bracelet out to him, being careful not to touch the needle. Dr. Smith pulled his glasses out from inside his suit and put them on before taking the bracelet. He read the message a few times to himself, and then said, "You'll find me inside. Inside what?" He set the bracelet down on his desk and rubbed his chin in thought.

"Maybe inside the bracelet?" Alice offered.

"That would be the only logical explanation. But what creature would be small enough to fit in the bracelet? It's not that thick. Could be a hologram or a consciousness inside. In which case I'll have to go back to the TARDIS to figure out." Dr. Smith stood up and rubbed his palms on his jacket. He looked at Alice and asked, "Coming?"

"Where?"

"To my, uh, my current home." He held his hand out to her, which she took and used to pull herself up.

"You called it something else," Alice said, following him to the classroom door. "Nobody calls their house by another name like that."

"I didn't say it was a house." Dr. Smith opened the door and stuck his head out to look in the hallway. "In fact," he said as he pulled his head back into the classroom, "We won't be leaving the school at all. So you don't have to worry about the tracker." He motioned to her ankle. Alice forgot about the tracker bracelet she had on now. Embarrassed, she crossed her right ankle over her left, hoping to hide the tracker. Dr. Smith didn't take his eyes off it.

"Tell me, do all students have to wear trackers 'round their ankles?" His voice sounded casual and nonchalant, but his furrowed brow suggested otherwise.

"Just the bad ones," she said. "And right now, I think that's...just me." She turned her face away. Here was the only teacher–no, the only person–set on helping her solve the mystery of her bracelet and the strange drawings, and she had disappointed him with her unwillingness to comply with the rules. But when she glanced at him, he just shrugged and opened the door all the way. He motioned for her to exit first.

That's not like any teacher I know, Alice thought. All the other teachers in the school would have reprimanded her for not following school rules, which were put to protect her, and then sat her down and notified the dean, wanting to know exactly which rules she had broken so they could lecture her on why those rules existed. It would be enough to drive anyone out of their minds.

"So if we're not leaving the school," Alice said, walking out the door. "That means that you live inside the school, yeah?"

"Not entirely." Dr. Smith looked down the hallway as if to see if anyone was following them. He glared down the hallway and reached inside his jacket for something. Alice followed his gaze to a large silver object standing at the end of the hallway. "What is–" she began.

Laser-type blasts erupted around where they were standing. Before she could finish her sentence, Dr. Smith had grabbed her arm with an iron grip and pushed her back into the classroom. She tripped and fell to the ground, slamming her forehead on one of the desks.

"Are you alright?" Dr. Smith demanded, roughly turning her over so he could look at her face. She looked at him, trying to focus. The details were blurry, but she thought that he looked at her with an extremely worried expression, almost a scared one. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"I–I'm ok," she said, "but that thing–it was–"

"Don't worry about it," Dr. Smith said, pointing the sonic thing at her head. The buzzing filled her ears and echoed around her head, making it hard to hear what else he was saying. He quickly put the sonic thing away and half carried, half dragged her behind his enormous desk. "You stay here," he said, holding his hand out to prevent her from getting up. "I'll be right back, I promise. Don't move."

There was now a loud stomping noise just outside the door. It sounded...mechanical, like a giant robot being moved by hydraulic pumps and pistons. Dr. Smith was gone now. Alice didn't know where he went, but she felt more exposed and in danger than when he was with her. A loud shout sounded just outside the door. But the stomping didn't stop. Alice closed her eyes and tried to lay her head down on the floor. Her head bounced a little bit, and the last thing she remembered before blacking out was the rhythmic sound of the stomping.


	5. Chapter 5

A Cyberman. But it can't have been.

The Doctor stood over the slightly smoking metal suit, pocketing his sonic screwdriver. That wasn't right. There hadn't been any Cybermen since Rose–

 _Rose._

Even several adventures and a few companions later, her name brought a tear to his eyes. He took a ragged breath and swiped at his eyes. _Focus_.

There hadn't been any Cybermen since they were sucked into the breach between universes. He knew the Daleks had somehow escaped–he ran into them with Martha–but there hadn't been a word from any Cybermen. Until now.

"You can't have been alone," the Doctor said to the still suit, bending down to examine it. "And I don't think you're all that old either. Suit's too new. Which means you were created fairly close, and fairly recently. Which means–"

The Doctor stopped. Footsteps were coming down the hall. They weren't the mechanical stomp of another Cyberman, but he couldn't risk pulling in another witness. He already had Donna to look after, and now Alice.

He looked around. The room that the TARDIS was in wasn't that far, only about a hundred meters away. He grabbed the metal suit under the armpits and quickly dragged it down the hall, not stopping for breath. If he could get the suit to the TARDIS, he could see if the scanners could pick up any clues as to where this Cyberman was converted. Wait, he thought. He was supposed to scan Alice's bracelet as well. He couldn't have her see this thing; she was already too involved.

He would have to scan the bracelet another time. It was with her in the classroom. She didn't hit her head hard, but hard enough for him to quickly scan the suit and dispose of it before she saw it. He grunted and pushed his shoulder into the correct door to open it. He could have this all figured out. And if need be, he'd send Donna to check up on her.

* * *

Alice groaned as she finally sat up. She gingerly reached up and touched the lump on her forehead. It felt like a second nose by the size of it, but she knew that it was probably a lot smaller. She pulled herself up, using the desk as support, and habitually glanced at the clock.

12:23. Well, it looked like she wasn't going to American History, then.

She looked around the room, wondering where she was. She reached down to rub the bracelet on her wrist and panicked when she couldn't find it. She wildly searched the room and found it lying on the desk where Dr. Smith left it.

Dr. Smith. Of course. Now she remembered what had happened. How her bracelet had come off, and how Dr. Smith found the little compartment. How the needle came out and took a sample of his DNA. And how he tried to show her his house, but something silver had stopped them.

Alice looked down at the bracelet. There was no message on it this time. She turned it over and saw that the compartment was still open, even though the needle was gone. She frowned and looked at it closer. Weren't the little lights along the wires supposed to be green, not blue? She gently touched the hole, and immediately it began to glow red. She yanked her hand back, but no needle came out. The red light in the hole was slowly flashing, and the lights along the wires were now purple. She turned the bracelet over to see a new message:

 _Find him._

Alice was certain the bracelet meant that she had to find Dr. Smith, but she didn't know where to look. They had barely made it out the door when the thing opened fire on them. She crossed to the door and almost went into the hallway, but hesitated with her hand on the doorknob. Whatever that thing was, there might be more waiting outside to ambush her. What if the thing had got Dr. Smith, and that's why he wasn't back yet? She shook her head and decided that those were stupid ideas, but she did pull the door open slowly and stuck her head out to look before she went anywhere.

There was no way to know where Dr. Smith had gone. Alice looked to the left, and then to the right, and then to the left again, but saw no signs that he had gone either way. Frustrated, Alice decided to walk to the right and try her luck.

A warm sensation was spreading through the hand that held the bracelet. She looked down and saw that the red light was blinking faster. It was a tracking device. And he had gone right.

With the bracelet extended in front of her, she walked briskly down the halls, ducking behind corners and fake plants to avoid the wandering teacher or security officer. If they caught her out of class again, she would have no chance of finding Dr. Smith until she had him in class again tomorrow.

After ten tense minutes of following the bracelet, the red light sputtered and went out. "No, come on," she muttered, smacking the bracelet with her palm. She finally gave up and looked around where she was.

She was standing directly in front of the door to the girls' restroom. Well he's not in here, she thought. But she reached up to touch the lump on her forehead and decided it might be a good idea to see how bad it was.

She pushed open the door and rounded the corner to where the stalls and sinks were just as the very last stall door opened up. She tensed up, ready to run in case it was a teacher on break.

But to her surprise, out of the stall came Dr. Smith. The man she was looking for.

He hadn't noticed her yet. He shut the stall door behind him and went over to one of the mirrors, where he proceeded to examine a small cut on his cheek. Alice, mouth wide open in shock, crossed over to the man. He caught her eye in the mirror and stopped rubbing his cheek. For a silent minute, they both stared at each other. He slowly turned to face her. His mouth was working, trying to speak words that wouldn't come.

Alice didn't wait for him to say anything. "What are you doing in the girls' room?" she demanded.

"Well, uh," he pointed at the stall that he came out of. "I was–"

"And what was that thing?" she interrupted. "What did it want to kill us for? And where were you?"

Dr. Smith put his hand down and cleared his throat. "That's, uh, that's where my home is." He motioned with a jerk of his head back to the stall.

Alice let out a short laugh. "A bathroom stall? And in the girls' room? You're kidding. You're a pedophile, aren't you? That's why you told all those things about my drawings and my bracelet and that sonic-y thing. I bet you're not even a real teacher. Doctor? Ha! Doctor of what, exactly?"

Dr. Smith stood down all these accusations without batting an eyelash. If anything, he looked sadder when he heard her accusations. Without saying a word, he turned and opened the stall door. She hadn't noticed it before, but an "Out of Order" sign was pasted on the door to the stall. He stepped back to let her look inside. And in the stall was a blue telephone booth, kind of like the ones that were on display in museums.

"No, I'm not a pedophile," he calmly said. "And I was a real teacher once. And as far as the doctor thing goes, I'm a doctor of almost everything." He turned his head to look at her. Her mouth was wide open once again, and she pointed from the telephone booth to Dr. Smith and back again.

"But how–?" she started to say.

"It's called a TARDIS. Come on, let's go inside." He gestured toward the door to the phone booth just as the bathroom door banged open and a pair of high heels clattered across the tile.

"Doctor!" cried a large, red-headed woman. "You won't believe it, but she's gone. Gone! You said that she hit her head hard enough that she should still be passed out, but she's gone, and the bracelet-thing you told me to look for is gone, and–" The woman gasped for breath, and looked at Alice. Startled, she cheerily said, "Oh, hello!"

Alice looked at Dr. Smith, who was smiling slightly. "Alice Smith, this is my companion Donna Noble. I sent her to go get you before you woke up. I was starting to wonder what happened to you." This last remark was pointed to Donna.

"Yeah, well, you know, secretary business," Donna said sardonically. "It's just a great big tea party behind a desk. Especially if you work for the Big Man."

"What, you mean the dean?" Alice asked. Whoever this woman was, she liked her.

Donna turned to look at Alice. "Yeah, him," she said. "Great big ball of a man who need to either shave his head or get a wig. I mean seriously! It's like looking at a bowl of ice cream all day!"

Alice snorted. Dr. Smith looked amused. "Well, now that we're all here, let's go into the TARDIS. Shall we?" He gestured for the ladies to enter first. Alice walked up to the door and stopped, wondering if she should be the one to open it.

"Come on, then," Donna said, gently pushing open the door and ushering Alice in. Alice saw Donna exchange a wink with Dr. Smith, and she wondered what she could possibly be getting herself into.


	6. Chapter 6

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Twelve foot lengths long, and twelve foot lengths wide.

Alice looked back inside the TARDIS to see Dr. Smith at the control pad in the center of the enormous room with his back turned toward her and Donna leaning against the railing surrounding the control pad, talking about her awful day as a secretary, how the computers here were too complex, whether the mail man winked at her or not, and could they please move on to a different time and place? Alice didn't know what they were talking about, but all that mattered to her right now was that the police box was _bigger on the inside_. There was no scientific way to explain it. A box that was twelve of her foot lengths long and wide was not supposed to be the size of a small ballroom. But here it was.

Looking around the inside of the room, Alice noticed a platform of the mesh floor leading to a doorway in the wall. Could it be the TARDIS was actually bigger than this room? And all squeezed in this little box?

"Alice?" Alice snapped her head around to see Dr. Smith and Donna looking at her. "Mind if I scan your bracelet?" He nodded at her hand, which was still closed around the bracelet.

She walked up the ramp and onto the level where they were standing. She held out her hand to Dr. Smith, who took her bracelet and spun back around to the control pad. He placed the bracelet on a metal tray that kind of looked like a CD or DVD player, except the indentation in the middle was the shape of the bracelet. He pushed the tray back into the hole it came out of and pressed a button right below the tray. An image began flickering a few yards away from Donna, roughly the size of a person.

"Doctor, is that–?" Donna asked, moving to stand next to Dr. Smith. She motioned at the image, which had now taken the form of a tall woman with curly blond hair, similar to Alice's. The woman looked as if she was a living, breathing person.

"It's a hologram," said Dr. Smith. "This must be the first of a series of messages. It will ask for clarifications along the way, and depending on how you answer, a different message will play."

"Kind of like the menus on a movie before you can play it," said Alice.

"Yeah," said Dr. Smith. "Something like that."

The woman spoke. "If you are the Doctor, try and touch me."

Dr. Smith looked at Donna, who shrugged. He nodded and crossed over to the woman and put his hand through her stomach.

The image of the woman flickered a little. "If Alice is with you, have her do the same, or speak the password." Alice looked at Dr. Smith. How did the woman know who she was? She'd never met the woman before. Dr. Smith saw the apprehension in her eyes and nodded for her to do the same. So she slowly walked over to the woman. She hesitated before touching the woman, and Dr. Smith put a steadying hand on her shoulder. She quickly thrust her hand in and yanked it out, worried about what it might do to her. She then walked backwards quickly away from the woman.

The woman smiled sadly. "It seems as if I am too early in your time stream, Doctor. You don't know me yet, but that will not be important to the message I am about to give you. I'm sure you've seen the signs by now, but they're coming. They are coming for Alice." A chill dripped down Alice's neck. Who was coming? "I need you to protect her from them. I can't tell you why they want her or who they are, but keep your eyes out. They will do everything in their power to get to her, and I need you to hide her until they are destroyed or leave. They won't kill her, but there are worse things than being dead."

"Alice," the woman said without turning her head or shifting her gaze. Alice realized the woman couldn't see them. "You need to stay with the Doctor. You may go traveling with him or stay in your own time, whichever you prefer. But you stay with him, no matter what. I know you have a family already, but the Doctor needs to become your family now. I'm sorry, but it's the only way to protect you."

The woman began flickering out of existence. Dr. Smith looked at the door, his brow furrowed. Alice was about to look the same way when the woman came back.

"Oh, and Doctor?" she seemed to call. Dr. Smith looked at her, shocked. "I expect you don't trust me with what I'm saying. But know this: there will come a day where you will trust me." Her voice was on the brink of pleading now. "There is no time to give you any more proof than that, but if you still don't trust me, there is the life of a person at risk here. Look at her." Dr. Smith obeyed, looking at Alice. "Please, Doctor." And the image winked out.

Several tense moments of silence followed as Dr. Smith looked at Alice. She clenched and unclenched her fists out of nervousness. Finally, Donna spoke.

"Doctor?" she asked, her voice hoarse and quiet. "What should we do?" She looked at Alice questioningly, fear creeping its way to her face.

Dr. Smith rubbed his chin. He looked Alice in the eye. She stared back fearfully. "It seems," he said with a sigh, "that it's time to take you home."


	7. Chapter 7

"Doctor."

Dr. Smith was looking at his consul, typing something into the monitor at his eye level. It probably was the address Alice gave him. He didn't look up when Donna said his name, only hesitate for a split second before typing the rest of the address.

" _Doctor._ "

He pushed a few buttons, still ignoring Donna.

"Doctor!"

Slamming a lever down, he looked up at Donna. The TARDIS began to lurch and turn so much Alice grabbed onto the railing. Donna followed in suit, but Dr. Smith stayed where he was, putting his hands in his pockets. After the TARDIS stopped moving, Donna looked up at him, purely and visibly annoyed.

"What," she said slowly, her teeth gritted, "are we going to do with her? You said we were going to take her home, and that means you're going to drop her off and we're going to leave."

"Not entirely." Dr. Smith tilted his head up slightly, but he still was looking at Donna.

"But what about what that woman said?" Donna pointed angrily at where the projection had been a few minutes ago. "We can't leave Alice! Whoever 'they' are, it sounds like they want to hurt her or something!"

"Donna," Dr. Smith tried to interject, but Donna kept rolling like an out of control train.

"Besides, even if she is wrong, it would be better to have Alice come with us than just let her sit at home and maybe get into danger."

"Donna–"

"I would much rather have her with us and know that the whole thing was a false alarm than wonder if she's alright!"

"Donna–"

"And if you can't settle for that, then I will personally stay with her and you've lost your companion, Space Man!"

"Donna, that's not what I meant–"

"Do I get a say in this?" Both Donna and Dr. Smith looked surprisedly at Alice, who was standing with her arms crossed, grimacing at both of them. She hadn't expected her quiet voice to be heard over their clamor, but she ended up getting their attention. "I mean, we are deciding what to do about me."

"Of–of course." Dr. Smith blinked and fully turned toward Alice. Donna looked at the floor and leaned against the railing. "Go right ahead."

Alice sighed. "I don't know who that woman was, and I don't know if she should be trusted. But I agree with Donna, I'd rather be safe than sorry. But I don't know what you mean by 'traveling'. I mean, I don't want to leave my parents without a notice, and they definitely wouldn't let me go with two strangers anywhere. Hell, they don't let me go across to the mainland." She pointed toward the TARDIS door for emphasis, even though she didn't know where New York was from here.

Donna and Dr. Smith exchanged a look. "I think it's time we told you everything," Dr. Smith said slowly, still looking at Donna. She nodded encouragingly. He looked back at Alice and started walking toward her. "It's only fair if we're going to be spending time together that you know who we are, what we do, and what traveling means to us." He put his hand on her shoulder and gently steered her toward the door. "Let's talk out here."

Alice opened the door, expecting to see the girls' room at her school, but was instead looking at a busy intersection in New York City. Alice looked at Dr. Smith, confused, but saw that he looked confused too.

"You live in a _cab_?" he asked, incredulous. Directly in front of them was a cab picking up two giddy women laden with shopping bags. Nobody stopped to look at them.

"No," Alice said. "I didn't give you my home address. But we _moved_."

"Then what address did you give me?" Dr. Smith looked down at her, and she looked up at him.

"We moved!" she said, laughing shortly.

"Yes, but what address did you give me?" he asked again.

She looked back into the street. "The one to my favorite restaurant. I come here sometimes when I skip school. It's actually right there." She pointed across the street to a diner with a neon sign.

Dr. Smith shrugged. "Might be a better place to talk than your living room." He started off across the street, dodging cars. Alice trotted behind him.

Donna was the last to come out of the TARDIS, and she hesitated at its door. "You skip school?" she asked, disbelief and admonishment in her voice. She ran after the other two, angrily shouting every insult that came to mind at a car that nearly hit her.

* * *

Five sundaes, two coffees, three orders of fries, and seven sodas later, they finally settled on a plan. The Doctor–Alice learned that his name really wasn't John Smith–and Donna would park the TARDIS in her bedroom, where they could watch over Alice while still letting her get on with her life. The problem of how the Doctor and Donna were going to go to school and get back to the TARDIS without being noticed by Alice's parents was still present. They couldn't fly the TARDIS every morning and afternoon in and out without the sound of the engines being heard, and sneaking in and out was going to be difficult. Alice's dad left for work before Alice woke up and didn't return until around dinner, but her mother didn't have a job. She stayed home all day, and surely she would notice two adults walking in and out of Alice's room.

Alice wasn't really paying attention to the Doctor and Donna as they discusses how they could safely get in and out of the house without anyone noticing. She had noticed that a young woman sitting on the other side of the restaurant was looking directly at her. Alice was trying to ignore her, but she only succeeded in uncomfortably looking at the ceiling. When she looked at the woman again, the woman was smiling. She had medium length brown hair and looked to be in her early to mid twenties. The woman leaned over her table, winked at Alice, and took a sip from her milkshake. Alice blinked in surprise.

"Alice?" The Doctor and Donna were both staring at her. Her face flushed a light pink as she pretended to studiously mix her ketchup with a fry.

"We were wondering what you thought the best plan would be to get us in and out without your mum seeing," the Doctor said, leaning his elbows on the table.

Without looking up from her ketchup, Alice shrugged. "I don't know. She said something about a week ago about getting a job at the hospital, but I don't know how well that will work, seeing as she hasn't put in a day of work since she married my dad." Alice popped the fry in her mouth and picked up another to swirl in the ketchup. "But if she does get the job, that will definitely help."

"We shouldn't rely on that," said the Doctor. "For now, let's try and make a plan assuming that she will be at home all the time."

"Then what should we do?" said Alice.

"Well we can't very well sneak around and not expect her to eventually find us," said Donna, crossing her arms. "And it's not like we can just go up to your door and say, 'Hello, Mrs. Smith, mind if we pop into your daughter's bedroom for a few months? Great, thanks.'"

Alice snorted at the thought of her mother's expression if the Doctor and Donna should introduce themselves that way. "I can sneak you guys in tonight, and then every morning you'll have to leave before she gets up around 6:36."

"That shouldn't be a problem," said the Doctor. "I'll have to be in my classroom early anyways."

"Hold on," said Donna, "why 6:36? I mean no one gets up at that specific of a time."

Alice sighed. "Her alarm goes off at 6:30 every morning, which she turns off approximately seventeen seconds later, and then she rolls over and tries to sleep for another half hour. Sometimes she can't, and the earliest she'll finally get out of bed is 6:32. It takes her thirty-five to go into the restroom, and then she comes out about three minutes later and comes downstairs. 6:36."

The Doctor and Donna just stared at Alice. "How can you do that?" asked Donna, incredulous.

Alice shrugged. "I've been doing it since I remember. I count time. But I haven't done it in a while..." She frowned, searching for the clock that hung over the counter. It said 4:17.

"4:17?" Alice gasped. "It's been four hours? I need to get home, my mother will be worried sick–"

"Don't worry about that, it's taken care of," interrupted the Doctor, stopping Alice from bolting from the diner.

"What do you mean taken care of?" Alice scooted back into the booth, leaning forward to look at the Doctor and Donna. "And you never told me who you guys are. Let's start there." She leaned back against the back of the booth and crossed her arms, waiting for a reply.

Donna stared out the window and scratched the back of her head. The Doctor looked as if he was floundering in a sea of words as he tried to form the right sentence. "We, uh, we're travelers," he said slowly, looking at Donna.

"You've already told me that. What kind of travelers?"

"Um, time travelers. Time and space. It's what TARDIS stands for, Time And Relative Dimension In...In Space." The Doctor pointed to the police box on the corner.

Alice nodded. "Alright. That should be hard to believe, but I guess it's not. So, assuming that you really are time travelers, where are you from? Or when?"

Donna looked up at this. "I came from London, in 2008. I'm from forty years ago, but I just left there a few weeks ago."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Okay." Turning to the Doctor, she said, "And what about you?"

He frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm from a much different time and place than London in 2008."

The party lapsed into silence then for a few minutes. Donna was the first to speak up. "Why don't we go back to your house, Alice? Get the TARDIS set in and all."

Alice nodded. "Alright." They all stood up and headed out the door. Alice left enough money on the table to cover their food and an ample tip. When she looked up, she thought of the woman who had winked at her and looked at the table where she was sitting at. But the woman was gone.


	8. Chapter 8

At 3:18, Alice started walking home. She had purposely sat behind a bush at the corner for the past eleven minutes so that she could trick her mother into thinking that she had rode the bus home instead of hitched a ride with her time-traveling teacher, who was now situated in the back of her closet.

Alice had told the Doctor to get to her house at 3:00 so they could avoid Alice's mother coming home from her weekly cooking classes. It took a few attempts, but the Doctor finally managed to park the TARDIS in Alice's closet without flattening too many flowers in the front yard. When Donna had went to straighten them out, Alice told her to get back in the house before her mother came. The flowers would be fine, Mother would just blame it on the damn kids and their damn games. After Donna rushed back inside, Alice sprinted down the street and dove behind a bush to avoid being spotted by her mother. She didn't care what the neighbors thought, she just didn't want to be caught in the wrong place by her mother and have to tell the truth about the woman in her bracelet and why her teacher had a phone box in the back of her closet. Alice wasn't even sure if she could explain it properly.

After Alice walked a few yards, her mother's convertible whipped around the corner and pulled over to where Alice was standing. She opened the door and climbed into the passenger seat. "You're later than usual, is something wrong?"

Mother glared at Alice and continued to drive home. "A simple hello would suffice when you greet me."

"Sorry, Mother. Anyways, how was cooking class?"

Mother didn't answer until she pulled into the driveway. She put the convertible in park and began crying.

Stunned, Alice put her hand on her mother's shoulder. "What happened today?"

Through her tears, Mother said, "I said goodbye today. I decided to take the job. That's the last cooking class I'll ever take." She broke down in fresh tears and put her hands over her eyes.

Alice rubbed Mother's shoulder, not knowing what to say. Finally, she worked up enough courage to speak what was on her mind. "Well, that's a good thing, yeah? I mean, you're always talking about how you wished Dad would make more money. And now you have your answer."

Mother screamed angrily. "That's a man's job! He's the one who is supposed to take care of his wife so she can do what she wants and raise a family! It's a woman's world, and the men are supposed to provide for the women so they don't have to work. And now I have to go to a job, and I have to be the one to bring in money, and–and–" She started sobbing uncontrollably.

Alice felt extremely uncomfortable. She didn't agree with her mother's positions on how men were the inferior species, but she couldn't speak out against it. "I'll be inside," she muttered, opening the door. "I've got a lot of make up work to do." She leaped out of the car and walked briskly into the house.

"You'll know what it feels like when you're in my position!" Mother yelled after Alice. Alice opened the door to the house and walked in. "Mark my words, sweetie, you'll be sorry one day!"

Alice ran up the stairs, down the hall, and into her bedroom. She shut the door behind her with a sigh of relief. Donna was standing next to the window. "Real charmer, your mum," she said, pointing out the window.

"Yeah," said Alice, closing the open window. "She's a New Age Feminist, so she thinks that all men are slaves and should only be around to take care of the women."

"Well that's not a very nice thought," said the Doctor, coming out of the closet. "Sounds like your mum would be a fun one to have a conversation with."

Alice whirled to face him. "She's still my mother," she said, annoyed, "and I love her. I don't want to hear you cracking on her, okay? The important thing is that she has the job, so she'll leave at the same time as my dad and get back in the evening, so you two can get in and out easily."

The Doctor shrugged and went back into the closet. Donna patted her arm consolingly. "This will be fun, yeah? Us being flatmates and all."

Alice looked out the window. "Mates," she said slowly. "Yeah." And to herself she said, "What have I gotten myself into?"

* * *

For ten days, rooming with the Doctor and Donna had been uneventful. They spent most of their time in the TARDIS, and Alice went to visit them only occasionally. She mostly stuck to her daily routine and tried to ignore that they were even there.

But on the eleventh day, the Doctor and Donna finally came out of the TARDIS. That night, Alice's parents had gone to the theater and a bar for the entire evening, so they had the place to themselves.

"Nice to finally get out of the TARDIS," said Donna as she came out of the closet, stretching her arms over her head. "So what do you want to do tonight?"

Alice looked up from the book she was reading. "I don't know," she said, surprised. "What did you want to do?"

"Ooh," said Donna, pleased that she got to choose. "Can we watch a bit of telly? I want to learn more about what's going on in this time."

"Mostly she wants to learn what happened to the Royals," said the Doctor, shutting the closet door behind him. Donna smacked him on the arm.

Alice shrugged, getting up from her chair. "I guess if you want to, one of the news channels will have something on the Royals. I think one of them is getting married in a few months. The TV's downstairs." Donna practically sprinted down the stairs and into the family room. Alice and the Doctor followed at a slower pace.

Donna was sitting on one of the chairs in the family room, leaning forward towards the TV, staring at the hundred of tiny buttons on the remote in her hand. "How do you work this thing if you can't see the buttons?" she asked, squinting down at the remote.

Alice took the remote, pressed a button to turn the TV on, and began showing Donna the different buttons. "This one controls the volume, this one flips through channels, or you can press this button and use these numbers to specify which channel you want. This button switches to Internet streaming, this one goes to the radio, this one shows you our collection of movies, this one's pause, this one's play, this one's stop, that's fast forward and rewind, this one skips through just one commercial, this one skips through all of them, this one takes you to the next program to air, this set is for if you want to play games, this button makes video calls–I wouldn't press it–and this one takes you back to the channels."

Donna just stared at the remote. "I don't know what half these functions are," she said, gingerly taking the remote from Alice.

The Doctor pointed at the channel button. "This is the one you want," he said, pressing a few buttons to get to the airing channels. "Up for forward, down for back."

Donna flipped through a few channels before settling on the five o'clock newscast on Channel 107, curling up in her chair to watch a story about a new bill being passed by the government. They had missed the first eighteen minutes of the newscast, so there was nothing about the ongoing wars all over the world. Alice didn't care for the news, so she sat on her side of the couch and continued to read her book.

* * *

Approximately five shows later, at 8:14, the Doctor grew tired of watching another reality show and leaned over to see what Alice was reading. "What book are you reading?" he asked, trying to look at the cover.

Startled, Alice looked up and smiled when she realized it was the Doctor talking to her, and not one of the characters in her book. "It's _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_. It's an old series, from when my dad was a kid, but it's one of my favorites." She lifted the book off her knees to show him the cover. "This was my dad's book. He said his dad bought it for him the day it came out."

The Doctor smiled as he looked at the cover. It was the same edition he had in the TARDIS. "That's one of my favorite book series. Have you read this book before?"

Alice smiled and looked back down at the book, slightly embarrassed. "Not yet," she said, looking up at the Doctor. "But don't spoil anything. My dad told me that Cedric died in _Goblet of Fire_ , and I wouldn't speak to him for a week."

"Oh, I wouldn't spoil it for you," the Doctor said, grinning. "But I will tell you though, it made me cry."

"Hey!" Alice yelled, playfully hitting him with the book. He laughed, taking the book away and holding it high above his head. She shrieked as she tried to get the book, but he tauntingly waved it above her and laughed when she tried to stretch to make herself taller. Both of them collapsed into giggles as Donna yelled that she was trying to catch up on the news.

A few minutes after the Doctor gave Alice her book back, she stood up and handed him the book. "Well, I'm going to take a shower. Keep that safe," she said, patting the book. "I'll be back in a few moments." She ran up stairs, shaking her leg to get rid of the pins-and-needles feeling it got when it fell asleep.

In the bathroom next to her bedroom, Alice turned on the water to the shower and hurried back into her bedroom. She pulled her pajamas out from behind her pillow on her bed and started back toward the bathroom. She stopped in the doorway for a few seconds, feeling dizzy, but she passed it off as dehydration and hurried back into the bathroom.

She stripped off her clothes and jumped into the shower before the water got too hot. Tonight wasn't the night to stand under the water idly; there was a water ration in progress, so this shower would have to be quick.

It wasn't long before she felt the dizzy spell come back, but stronger this time. Alice washed the shampoo off her hands that she was about to lather into her hair and leaned against the shower wall. _Deep breaths_ , she thought. _In, and out_. She looked down at the shower floor and closed her eyes.

 _Wait_. There was something odd about what she saw, something that she had only noticed for a fraction of a second. She opened her eyes again and looked down. The tracker bracelet that the dean had given her to wear on her ankle was _growing_. It almost looked like a puzzle, with bits of metal sliding out and locking themselves down to her legs. Every time a new piece of metal slid into place, it felt like little needles would puncture her skin underneath. And every time more needles punctured her, the dizziness got worse.

Panicking, Alice reached down and tried to pull the metal plates out of her leg. By now, they had almost entirely encompassed her foot and were climbing above her knee. She pulled on the plates, but more would slide in before them and she would lose her grip. A sharp throbbing headache distracted her, almost like something inside her brain was trying to get out. Panting, she held on to her head with one hand and desperately tried to pull the plates off, which were all around her left leg and started branching out to her right leg and her torso. She didn't know if it was the headache, but it felt as if the plates were moving faster and the needles were growing sharper.

She started screaming when the bursting pain flowered in her head, right as the plates locked around her right leg. She couldn't see or hear or feel anything, just the pain that threatened to make her explode. Seizing, she fell out of the shower and lost consciousness.


End file.
